Rockwell Extends Pact With Ventura Firm

A contract renewal from industrial giant Rockwell International Corp. will allow a small Ventura firm, 1st Step Industrial & Filter Inc., to double its revenues in the coming year, the company says.

1st Step, which is owned and managed by three women, markets industrial filters for two leaders in that field, American Air Filter and Norgren Compressed Air Filter.

The Ventura company has just won an extension through 1999 of a deal for Rockwell to use American Air and Norgren filters to clear the air at Rockwell installations worldwide. Rockwell also agreed to expand its use of the devices.

“Our revenues totaled $1 million last year and, as a result of this contract, we expect that figure to double,” said Shelene Robinson, 1st Step’s sales manager and one of its owners. “And it could go much higher than that a few years from now.”

Robinson credits government and company policies favoring women-owned and small concerns with helping the firm land the contract.